Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

Saturday musings and safety cats?

Posted Saturday, April 9, 2016, at 8:19 AM

Taking safety around the home seriously.

I will start with the "safety cats" since that will probably have you wondering. When I turned on the overhead light in my office area this morning, Molly was sleeping on the stereo and immediately started looking at the light switch.

Not just a glance but a stare, with ears perked up. Then her brother Mike came up and started doing the same thing. Suddenly, the light went out.

Well, that got me to lookin' a well and what I found was some corrosion on the wire connections. It had been installed probably 25-30 years ago by the previous owner and we never had a reason to check it out.

They must have heard some sparking from the poor connection and I wonder if that could have lead to a more serious situation, or just an annoying light failure?

Now comes my observation about a bad back. Some of you already know that back suddenly "went out" two days ago. I'm pretty sure it was not corrosive contacts, but recovery is slow so the little things we take for granted are becoming more obvious.

Like the Olympic sport of picking things up. Either I have never noticed how clumsy I am, or I am dropping more things and therefore having to PICK THEM UP, with a back that does not want to play nice.

Wonder which came first? I'm not asking my wife because I know the answer :-P but am I more clumsy than usual because of the bad back or just noticing it more?

Another strange development with this back. I am limited to what I can do, which should be demoralizing, but strangely I look forward to the day because my options are narrowed substantially.

A pretty Saturday morning would have me out early and continuously seeing more odds and ends to do. Today, I know clearly what I am NOT doing, so it makes it strangely comforting that I know exactly what I will be doing, listing things for sale on eBay.

It is something I should be doing, but it always seemed to be delayed,postponed or cancelled by all the other things I saw that needed to be done. I often joke in my classes that Debbi and I would be selling more if her husband (me) listed more. I got it covered this morning. :-)

OK, now to list more, I have to stop writing on this blog so..... toodles.

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OK, I am ready to stop being limited, in fact I thought I was getting better, until I am not, so.... tomorrow I guess I get it looked at.

-- Posted by stevemills on Sun, Apr 10, 2016, at 11:04 AM

I would go to a chiropractor first before having any back surgery! Not many back surgeries work. They only cause further back problems.

Even those pain gadgets inserted under the skin can prove to cause infections and your back is worse plus more pain. But then who am I to say?

-- Posted by sui on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 3:40 PM

I don't know who you are sui. Some of us have wondered. ;-)

I wasn't planning on back surgery or even a choir director. LOL I am getting a little better each day, just found out that trying to push it is not smart.

-- Posted by stevemills on Mon, Apr 11, 2016, at 4:29 PM

I bought me a picker upper gadget so I dont have to bend Steve. You might consider that til you get better.

-- Posted by cherokee2 on Tue, Apr 26, 2016, at 7:39 AM

My mother-in-law has several but I never thought about using them. Thanks.